When we see records being broken and unprecedented events such as this, the onus is on those who deny any connection to climate change to prove their case. Global warming has fundamentally altered the background conditions that give rise to all weather. In the strictest sense, all weather is now connected to climate change. Kevin Trenberth

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Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Texas drought killed 301 million trees

The numbers are ugly. A whopping 301 million trees have died across state forest lands as a result of the 2011 drought, the Texas A&M Forest Service reported Tuesday.

The latest count was determined after a three-month, on-the-ground study of hundreds of forested plots, as well as satellite imagery from before and after the drought. It includes trees killed directly by the drought and those so weakened that they succumbed to insects and disease.

The Brazos Valley region took the heaviest hit, losing nearly 10% of its trees on forested land. North Texas and western northeast Texas lost 8.3% and 8.2%, respectively.

Harris County is included in the 6.5% loss in the western section of southeast Texas. That's nearly 19 million fewer trees than the near 290 million live tree count before the drought. Far east stretches of southeast Texas got better news: a 1.3% loss, down 7.5 million trees from pre-drought 597.1 million live trees.

The 301 million count falls about midway of the forest service's previous estimates of 100-500 million drought-related tree deaths.

Although still a huge toll, the good news is the forest is resilient [wrong], says Burl Carraway, department head for the Texas A&M Forest Service Sustainable Forestry department. Young, new trees eventually grow in the place of fallen dead trees. [Wrong.]

"Tree death is a natural forest process," he said in a news release. "We just had more last year than previous years." [Wrong.]

Most of the dead trees will stand until they fall, says Forest Service analyst Chris Edgar. This benefits wildlife and helps prevent soil erosion.

The dead trees, however, could become hazards in fire conditions.

The 301 million does not include trees that shade our home gardens, city parks and streets. Another 5.6 million urban trees have died from the drought, according to an earlier study done by the service's Urban Forest program.

Houstonians have been shaken by the drought-related gaps in our urban forest.